Pool Shark!
by KipperMay
Summary: Beware of the water. Jack is possessed by a horrible spell.


The sun was blinding as Fi stepped out of the bus, even through her sunglasses. Waves of heat slithered up from the pavement of the parking lot. She heard her brother Jack's sharp intake of breath as the heat hit him.  
  
"Man." Clu whined as he jumped out of the bus. "It is Way too hot for this. With a capital 'w'." Jack nodded.  
  
" Amen." He turned back to the bus. "Mrs. Bell, can't we just hang out at the hotel today and walk around tomorrow when it's cooler?" Irene shook her head, leaning out the door of the bus. " Uh-uh, kids, it's even hotter tomorrow." Jack groaned, and Irene went back into the bus. " Oh, by the way, guys, in or out? We can't leave the door open." Fi pushed past Jack and Clu and back into the bus.  
  
" I'm definitely in." Irene smiled, and looked back out. "Boys?" Jack shook his head.  
  
"No, I think Clu and I are going to go look for a pool." Irene shrugged, and then gasped as Carey barreled past them and leaped out of the bus-in bare feet.  
  
" Ow! Ooh, hot!" He danced around on the blacktop, and finally jumped back into the bus. He slipped his feet into a pair of flip-flops, and then ran out after Jack and Clu. " Hey, guys, wait up!" Irene laughed as Molly came back to the bus.  
  
" Irene? The manager said our rooms would be ready in about an hour." She turned to Fiona. " Can you wait that long, baby?" Fi nodded.  
  
" Sure, Mom. I'm going to go get on my computer for a little while, okay?" Molly nodded, too.  
  
" I'll call you when the room's ready, all right?"  
  
" Okay!" Fi shouted. She ran into her room and shut the door. She sat down at her laptop, cracking her knuckles and grinning. " Time to connect," she muttered happily as she clicked on the Internet icon. As soon as her laptop connected to the Internet, it notified her that she had a new e-mail. She clicked on the icon, which brought up e-mail from "unknown". She had seen this before. Frowning, she opened it. It was short, only one sentence:  
  
Beware Of The Water.  
  
Suddenly, it began scrolling down the screen, the same sentence, over and over.  
  
Beware Of The Water.  
  
Beware Of The Water.  
  
Beware Of The Water.  
  
Beware Of The Water.  
  
Beware Of The Water.  
  
Beware Of The Water.  
  
Beware Of The Water.  
  
Beware Of The Water.  
  
Beware Of The Water.  
  
Beware Of The Water.  
  
Beware Of The Water.  
  
Beware Of The Water.  
  
Beware Of The Water.  
  
Fi disconnected from the Internet and shut down her computer, frowning at it. Then she turned it back on, and connected to the Internet again. It told her she had a new e-mail from "unknown". She ignored it and went to her So Weird Website. She went to the message boards and posted a copy of the e-mail, then typed under it: "Anyone know what this could mean? -Fi". She shut down the computer and ran out of her room. Molly was sitting across from Irene, and Ned was checking the map. She pulled on her sneakers without socks, kissed Molly on the cheek, and then ran out. Molly smiled.  
  
" What a sweet child I have." Irene nodded.  
  
" Guys! Wait!" Fi shouted, running toward the boys as soon as she saw them. They were standing sullenly, looking around them for some relief from the heat. They looked up at her when she came up to them. " Hey, Jack, Carey, Clu! Don't go in the pool!" Jack frowned.  
  
" Don't rub it in, Fi, all right? We've realized that we cannot find the pool." Clu nodded, wiping sweat off his forehead.  
  
" Yeah, Fi! It's hot, and we seriously need to chill in some cold water!" Carey sighed, ignoring Jack and Clu.  
  
" Why not, Fi? Is there something wrong with it?" She nodded, and then shook her head, unsure.  
  
" I don't know. But I know you shouldn't get in." Jack and Clu started walking, and Carey and Fi followed. Carey looked down at her, truly curious.  
  
" How?" he asked. She shrugged.  
  
" I got an e-mail saying to beware of the water. I don't what water, exactly, but I don't think we should get in the pool until we figure it out." Jack turned around.  
  
" Who was the e-mail from?" Fi shrugged again.  
  
" It said that the sender was unknown." Jack shook his head, chuckling.  
  
" Fi, it was a prank! Some jerk pulling your chain. Now come on, let's go swimming, okay?" They had arrived at the pool. Fi stared into the water, frowning. Nothing seemed wrong with it. She and Carey scanned the pool and the deck around it as Clu and Jack pulled off their t- shirts and sandals.  
  
" Kinda empty, don't you think?" Carey observed. Jack shrugged.  
  
" So we have it all to ourselves. Come on, you guys! You're just being paranoid, right, Clu?" Jack looked around. " Clu?" Clu surfaced and splashed Jack.  
  
" Come on, man! The water's fine!" Jack smiled smugly at Fi, and then jumped in. She looked desperately at Carey, who guiltily shrugged.  
  
" I'm sorry, Fi, but they seem fine, and I'm dying. Why don't you come swim with us?" He pulled off his t-shirt, and was about to jump into the water, when Jack and Clu started to scream.  
  
" Ow! It's hot!" Clu jumped out, but Jack couldn't get to the side quickly enough. He disappeared with a puff of smoke. Clu, Carey, and Fi stared at each other for a moment, dumbfounded. Then Fi looked at the water and screamed for her brother desperately.  
  
" Jack! Jack, where are you? Jack, come back! Hey, Jack!" Carey put a hand on her shoulder.  
  
" Relax for a minute, Fi. We need to think rationally about this, okay?" She nodded, taking a deep breath, and let him continue. " Okay, you get a mysterious e-mail saying to watch out for the water. Then the pool gets really hot, and Jack disappears. Could the person that wrote the e-mail have done this?" Fi shook her head.  
  
" I don't think so. I think they were trying to warn me." Clu sat down, gingerly rubbing his feet.  
  
" That water was weird, Fi, like someone turned it to boil or something. When I was getting out, the water looked reddish." Fi turned to him.  
  
" Reddish?" He nodded, and she looked at Carey. He shrugged.  
  
" I think you'd better get your laptop." She couldn't help but grin despite the situation.  
  
" I think you're right."  
  
* * *  
  
Fi read the message posting out loud. " There are legends of bewitched bathing pools or ponds. If a person wanted to target someone, for good or bad reasons, they could cast a spell on the water, and then, when they went to bathe, the spell would take effect. What you're describing, when the water turned red, and how your brother disappeared in smoke sounds to me like a curse that you can put on water called a 'Passing' spell. It's used when someone with the powers required wants to be someone else. They use the spell to catch the person that they want to be, switch places with them, and return as if nothing has happened. The only way you can tell if this has happened to a person is that their eyes will have hints of red in them, and they will almost always have a small birthmark above their right eye. That's all I know, so just look for those signs." She looked up at Carey and Clu. " You think that's what happened?" Carey shrugged.  
  
" Sounds like it to me. But Jack hasn't come back." Fi nodded, and then turned, as there was a knock on the door.  
  
" Come in!" Jack came in, smiling.  
  
" Hey. Why'd you guys leave? You don't actually believe that there was something wrong with the water, do you?" He looked at Fi. " That's insane, you guys!" He rubbed a small mark above his right eye, and Carey turned to Fi, eyes wide. Fi nodded slightly, and stood up.  
  
" You're right, Jack, but we wanted to play on the computer for a bit." She glanced at Clu, who quickly shut the laptop. She turned back to Jack, and stared into his eyes. They were a dark brown-red. He blinked, raised an eyebrow at her, and looked at Carey and Clu.  
  
" Okay, you guys are seriously getting into Fi's weird stuff too much. They're just stories, you guys!" Carey nodded.  
  
" Sure, Jack. Yeah. Why don't we, uh, go and play some cards? I think Clu wanted Fi to help him look something up on the Internet." Clu frowned, confused.  
  
" I did?" Carey stared at him meaningfully. " Oh! Right, I did! So, Fi, you think you can help me?" She nodded cheerfully.  
  
" Sure thing, Clu! No problem." Jack shrugged and followed Carey out of the room. As Carey bent to shut the door, he hissed to them, " Find out how to change him back!" Fi nodded, and he shut the door.  
  
Clu leaned over and stared at the computer as Fi posted another message: " How can I fix it?" She pressed the Post button and sat back to wait. Before two minutes had passed, a new message appeared called "Re: To Fix It". She clicked on it eagerly, and read the posting out loud.  
  
" To change the cursed person back to normal, or to switch the two back, you must get the cursed back into the body of water where the curse took place for at least ten minutes. If you do, the curse will be broken and the two people will be switched back." Clu grinned.  
  
" Sounds like it might work, eh, Fi?" She nodded, smiling, and grabbed her bathing suit.  
  
  
  
Jack sat down at the edge of the pool, and looked up at Carey.  
  
"Water sure looks great, huh?" Carey nodded nervously and looked up to see if he could see Fi or Clu. Sure enough, they were running toward them. He smiled.  
  
" Hey, Jack, here come Fi and Clu. Maybe we should wait for them before we get in, you think?" Jack shrugged and stood up.  
  
" Okay, if you really want to." Carey nodded again and waved to Clu and Fi. When they reached the pool, Carey grabbed Fi's arm and whispered in her ear.  
  
" I really hope you found some way to change him back because this guy is cree-py!" Fi nodded.  
  
" Don't worry about a thing." She turned to Jack. " Hey, Jack, why don't you hop in and the three of us will go get some food, okay?" He shrugged again.  
  
" Okay. I'll tell you how the water is." Fi smiled.  
  
" Great. C'mon, guys." They walked toward the food stand as Jack eased into the pool. Carey frowned.  
  
" I thought we were supposed to keep him out of the pool?" Fi shook her head.  
  
" Nope. Clu and I found that if we keep him in the water for ten minutes, then he'll be switched back permanently. But no one else can be in the water when he is, or else the curse will transfer to them." Clu nodded, grinning.  
  
" That's why we came over here! To get 'food'." He waved his fingers in quotation marks. Fi rolled her eyes, ignored him, and turned back to Carey.  
  
" If we can just make sure that he stays in the water for ten minutes, everything will be fine!"  
  
(5 Minutes later)  
  
Molly hurried toward the pool, where she saw Jack swimming around and splashing alone. She frowned and knelt by the pool.  
  
" Hey, Jack, where are the others?" He surfaced.  
  
" I don't know. They said something about getting something to eat for all of us." Molly nodded.  
  
" And knowing Carey, they'll probably be awhile." Jack nodded. " Oh!" Molly added. " The room's ready, so after you guys eat, you can come up and unpack your stuff." He smiled.  
  
" Great! Thanks, Mom." As soon as she walked away, the pool grew hot. "Jack" tried to jump out of the pool, but just then everyone else arrived and Carey held him in the pool for three more minutes. The pool began to boil around him, and suddenly, at about nine minutes and thirty seconds, Fi, Carey, and Clu saw a green mist rise up from Jack. Fiona's brother fell limp in Carey's arms until a blue mist descended onto him. Suddenly, he opened his eyes (which were their regular blue) and looked around, surprised. " Whoa.what happened? I was just in this little room.I remember looking in the mirror and it wasn't me." He looked at Fi questioningly, but she only shrugged.  
  
" You fell asleep floating on your back, and we had to grab you out of the pool before you drowned." Carey pulled him the rest of the way out of the water and nodded.  
  
" Yeah, that's right. You should be more careful, man." Jack nodded, dazed. Clu grinned at him.  
  
" Hey, the rooms are ready. Let's go and crank up the AC!" Jack smiled despite himself.  
  
" Okay, let's go." They ran off, leaving Carey and Fi standing together, chuckling. He turned to her.  
  
" Why didn't you tell him the truth?" he asked quietly. Fi began walking toward the hotel.  
  
" I don't think he needs to know right away," she replied. Carey caught up to her.  
  
" Ah. Okay."  
  
  
  
From inside a small room across the parking lot of the hotel, a shriveled old woman howled with anguish. She would never be free again.  
  
The End 


End file.
